Dunford Touts F-35 as 'Not Just a Better F-18 or Bomb Truck'

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said Monday that the F-35 is "not just a better F-18" but a "transformational" aircraft that will change the way the U.S. conducts war.

"The short answer is it's a critical program," Dunford said of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in response to questions at a National Press Club lunch.

"I believe it is not just a better F-18 [Super Hornet] or a better bomb truck," he said, but rather a transformational platform "both in its ability to deliver its ordnance as well as its ability to serve literally as a server in the sky."

"It is going to transform the way we fight," Dunford said, despite well-documented continuing cost overruns and engineering problems that have slowed its deployment.

The general said the cost overruns are less of a problem than they had been.

"Frankly, the cost overruns -- a bit of that is history because over the past 18-24 months, I think people would agree, and Congress certainly, I think, supports this perspective -- that the program manager has done a great job of getting a lot of those cost overruns back in control," he said.

"The impact of air superiority provided by our F-35s is integral to supporting our warfighters and NATO allies," Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said in a statement. "Showcasing our cutting-edge aircraft technology is one of many ways we ensure ready forces while deterring threats from the outset."